7 Khoon Maaf - Movie Review

Hmm... My brother wrote a very good review of this movie in his blog: http://summaryoflifetimes.blogspot.com/2011/02/7-khoon-maaf.html

So I went to watch this one as well. So here's my review (Possible Spoilers alert).

This movie is a supposed to be a dark psychological thriller and it might look like that for most part of the movie. But it is actually a spiritual movie and it always was, once you think about it after watching. It slowly grows on you.

Let me complete some of the technical stuff before I go to the heart of the movie. The movie has tried to create it's dark nature by having dull and dim lights more often than not. Also, the main story starts off as a narrative from a viewpoint of the boy but then they take some licenses to enhance the story by showing soem scenes which the boy could have never known. But when it came to the character of Susanna, we do not know anything more that what the boy knows. There is no room for us to introspect or judge her personally. We see her just as the boy does. That is something the movie maker never lost sight of and can be considered as a good achievement. The performances are good and very restrained. Although, I personally sensed a lot of effort on Priyanka's performance. I mean she is not a natural actor but she is a "made" actor.

Now lets focus on the heart of the movie. Susanna, the protagonist, is looking for her "father". In this case, her "father" happens to be a Jewish carpenter (AKA Jesus). She builds up her anticipation and whenever she meets "Jesus", she is somehow or the other disappointed. She was looking for the ruler of the other world among the others who were of this world. It was just matter of time when her illusions were shattered and she could never take it or let it go. These events form the most part of the movie. But then as it is said by someone, somewhere... Just one act of surrender is enough to wipe out all the past karmas. There is always hope for everyone in this world. It might not always look like that, but there is only one path. It might not be apparent, but Susanna had a lot of love in her and that was the only path for her. Thus, the metaphor of Sufi was portrayed here correctly and we can clearly associate with it. Really, once you completely surrender... what is there to be punished, and hence, a very apt title - 7 Khoon Maaf (7 Murders Forgiven).

Life Is a Joke

"Life is a joke... The whole existence is a joke". This is a quote from Osho in some of his books. I have read it a lot of times. Haha... over the past few months, it has really struck me.

Nowadays when I read newspaper, I have a little smile or a smirk in my face. Yeah, really! I mean to read it and see what we humans are doing and how really lost we are. It might be about some government corruption or some tragic case or sports news. Ha, how much importance we give to ourselves. Yeah, it is a survival instinct but the way we have blown it up is really horrendous.

Does the sun care if I live or I die or if I am drowning or if I am burning? It will keep emitting light as long as the gas is burnt up. To be honest, I sometimes feel that if Sun had a concsiousness (like ours), it would laugh at us. It would say "Look at them, running around... Earths most intelligent species. They create divisions based on some boundaries (which I cant see and dont care), raping their own home and support some values (whatever that is is).. haa, Intelligent".

Life is a joke. It is something that I remember everyday in the morning now. How I wish I could announce it to the word? Really, in the office I see little young interns who are already cribbing about their teammates or are so serious about their "project". Hahah, how do I say that this needless significance is really ruining their "fun" at such an early age. How do I tell them to laugh it out and not take it too seriously? Then there are others experienced hires. They ask me why I am not yet an Associate or some title. I find it funny nowadays and do not even care. I laugh it out as a response, but that only gets them more serious for some reason.

Life is joke and so am I. Really! Nowadays, when I am driving and I get irritated at anyone, i remind myself of that. Then, I laugh. Hahaha... that is all there is. I do not want to fall in the trap (in which I have been for more than 28 years of this life) where I give too much importance to oneself. Whenever I get too serious about enlightenment and all that stuff, I remind myself that it is still all a joke. Just a cosmic sense of humor.

So people, all I want to state here is just laugh all your worries away and see how small or negligible they all are.

Hahahahha...

Walking in Contemplation, Driving in Sufism and Zen

I learnt the most important lesson in my life during the last week of December 2010. In Thiruvannamalai, the Swamiji spoke about the path of Contemplation. Ever since, I have been trying my best to contemplate on all my actions and all the thoughts that creep up. As soon as a lower nature thought comes into my mind (lower nature is anger, irritation, hatred, jealousy, lust, etc.), I keep asking myself the following questions “From where did this emotion come from? Why do I feel this emotion? Will it help me in realizing the truth?”. This has certainly helped me in somewhat controlling my mind and diverting it from this unnecessary feeling of upset and uncomfortability which follows it. At times, I used to experience guilt as well. While contemplating on my own emotions, I feel much more positive and peaceful as compared to before. It is an arduous task though. I still loose my equilibrium with simple gestures of others like when my mother speaks about some certain things or when a pedestrian or another driver makes a sudden turn. At times, I catch myself looking at an individual of the opposite gender and my mind is running things up and I am like “aha, this is not what I want. I only want to get as close to the Truth and this will not help me”. My samskaras (no equivalent English word) of previous lives which is reflected as “vaasnas” (impression) on my mind is not so easy to erase and it will takes years of practice to get this monkey of a mind to behave properly in tune with the higher nature. There are at times when I am about to crack a harmless joke or about to gossip but then I remind me of the real purpose of life. Even if I do give in to the whims of my mind, I keep asking my mind and remind myself about mine and everyone’s true nature... Pure Consciousness.

In December my bro explained to me about Sufi music. The concept is such that they are actually devotional songs and as per their principle/philosophy, they treat God/Self/Truth as the Beloved. Hence, their songs look like Love songs. But when you see the “true” picture, the dimension completely changes. I had heard about Sufism in Osho’s book but that was it. I had not dwelled much on it. Wow, now I have Osho’s music and then Sufi music to enjoy while I drive which only keeps me connected to “God/Truth/Self” much more than before. Then where does Zen come into this while driving. For this you need to understand a very small Koan: “Once on a rainy day, there was a Zen Master and a young monk who were walking through the forest. As per their customs, it was important that they do not interact with females in any sort of way. They came across a river which was flowing very strongly and needed to get across to the other bank. There was a lady as well on the same bank. She approached the master to help her cross the river. The master carried the lady and crossed the river. The young monk was looking at all this and was surprised that the master would touch the lady and lift her up and that too in a rainy day (all wet). After they crossed, the lady thanked the master and left. The young monk kept on thinking about this and after some time asked the master as to how and why did he break the rule and touched the lady. The Master replied “Are you still carrying her?”. “ So whenever I get irritated by the pedestrians or a driver, I get irritated by them and feel the anger. But I do not let it grow any further. Otherwise, the impression on my mind is that much more. Hopefully, would learn to “live in the moment” in this way which is one of the core teachings of Zen as well as Sufi.

My Koan - I wrote

Once there was a young monk who had travelled all over the country and it’s holy places. He had also lived in forests and caves. Still he had not yet realized the Self. Then once when he was passing thorugh a village, he heard of a Swami who everyone claimed to be Self Realised. This young monk thought of meeting him and asking him how he did it. So he went to meet the monk who was just sitting under a tree. The young monk went, bowed down and with folded hands asked the monk, “I have visited all the places that one can visit, practiced all the methods of concentration and have not yet realized the Self. Please tell me if I have missed anything”. The Swami looked towards him and then burst out in laughter. He almost rolled on the floor. At that moment, the young monk got enlightened.